


littlest peephole

by Voidromeda



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Background Relationships, Canonical Character Death, Creepy, M/M, Obsession, One-Sided Attraction, Stalking, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-14 14:43:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18950209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voidromeda/pseuds/Voidromeda
Summary: When Takashi Shirogane moves in next door with his husband, Adam Shirogane, Keith finds himself helplessly attracted to Takashi. Unable to even approach Takashi just to be friends, Keith is ready to resign himself to a quick, one-off attraction that he hopes will fade away in time, only to find a terrible little secret in his flat.One of the previous tenants of the flat has drilled a little peephole in the wall, letting them peek at his next-door neighbour - right at Takashi Shirogane.





	littlest peephole

**Author's Note:**

> **Note:** This story does not try and portray what Keith is doing in a positive light at all. Please keep this in mind when reading the story.
> 
>  **Edit:** Very quickly did some tense fixes.

His next door neighbour is absolutely gorgeous, and it is Keith’s misfortune that the man is taken. Married, actually; living right next door to him, with his equally as handsome husband and his adorable little Pomeranian, is Takashi and Adam Shirogane.

Keith doesn’t want to think about, tries not to; he tries not to remember the way Takashi’s face brightens up at the sight of his basket of cupcakes and cookies. He tries not to remember the way their little Pomeranian, Missile, bounds into his arms and refuses to leave for a good while, to the point that Adam and Takashi are marveling at him.

But the memory haunts him. He remembers it far too well, remembers the beauty in Takashi’s voice when he takes in how comfortable Missile is with Keith. He remembers the look on his face, on his and Adam’s, and Keith thinks he wants to cry.

“She doesn’t like many people,” Takashi says with a great amount of awe in his voice, his eyes wide and glimmering with amusement and his lips curling upwards in a big, wide grin. Adam laughs next to him, brimming with love at Takashi and Keith’s heart tightens, constricts in his chest, and bursts into millions of pieces against his rib cage. “I’m on a diet, but I’m sure Adam would appreciate the sweets. Thank you…?”

“Keith,” he introduces, “Keith Kogane. Nice to meet you, both.” his eyes never once leave Takashi’s, his shoulders squaring up, and the other man seems absolutely oblivious to the intensity of Keith’s focus on him.

No, he just grins and takes the basket, Adam coming up to take it from him so that Takashi can offer a hand for a handshake. His grip is firm, but not stern; he doesn’t mean to intimidate, and Keith will forever remember how his skin feels. Strong, with callouses from whatever it is that he does, and Keith’s heart beats at a hundred miles per second from how close Takashi is to him.

“My name’s Takashi Shirogane, and this is my husband – Adam. Everyone calls me Shiro, though.”

“Not me,” Adam quips, a warm smile on his face when he looks at Takashi, and Keith struggles to control his breathing, “I call him Kashi, just to set us apart.”

Takashi rolls his eyes, but nothing about the action is mean-spirited. Nothing about him is malicious, period. He is a beacon of purity and beauty in this world that doesn’t deserve a man like him, and Keith tries not to gasp openly at how beautiful he is.

“I have to go,” he excuses himself, and Takashi nods and waves goodbye, “I hope Adam enjoys the cupcakes and cookies.” is what he says before he leaves, not letting Adam or Takashi get a word in before he is running away with his tail between his legs. He thinks he hears Takashi say something, worry in his voice, but he doesn’t pay attention to it.

His heart won’t stop beating so hard, so fast. He can’t stop thinking about the feeling of his hand, can’t stop wondering about how his prosthetic feels like. It looks advanced, new. Modern. Something expensive on a man who deserves it all, and Keith buries his hands in his own hair once he gets into his flat.

Right next door. He can’t stop thinking about it – right next door. Left of his door, closer to the exit than Keith. _Right next door, right there. He is right there._

He is so _gorgeous._ His hands itch with the urge to get Takashi’s face down onto paper, to immortalize it, to make him the next piece of Keith’s fascination and intrigue. He wants to sell his face, wants everyone to see how beautiful he is and marvel alongside him – with his salt and pepper hair, and the endless kindness in his eyes.

Keith doesn’t want to think about his obsession. ‘ _People aren’t objects for you to obsess over,’_ he thinks back to his therapist telling him, _‘they’re people, and they have their own lives.’_ he can’t be doing this again.

But the discovery of a peephole that he didn’t know about before leads to a downwards spiral that he hopes to never, ever let hit rock bottom. He doesn’t know what this says about the previous flat owner, but he finds it a few days after the Shiroganes move in by pure accident while cleaning up. There is a small little hole in the wall, big enough to see through but little enough to be unobtrusive, and looking straight into the Shirogane’s residence.

He sees Takashi kissing Adam with his limited vision and panic blindsides him, a voice yells at him in the back of his head to cover it up – tell the landlord, tell Takashi and apologize, tell the Shiroganes that he didn’t know. He never covers the hole up since his discovery.

There are a lot of things he ends up learning from his little peephole; he witnesses Takashi grab at one of the cupcakes he has over from Keith’s first visit, doing it behind Adam’s back so he doesn’t witness him breaking his unnecessary diet, and he watches the way he laughs when Missile starts barking and makes Adam find out regardless.

He witnesses the way Takashi ends up burning eggs while talking to someone on the phone, the conversation so engaging that he completely forgets about breakfast and he yells loud enough that Keith jolts in surprise and Adam rushes in, only to let free an exaggerated sigh when he sees the problem.

“You know you can’t cook,” Adam complains, but there is no bite behind his words, and Keith tries to take in as much of Takashi as he can when Adam swoops in to hug him after turning the stove off and moving the pan aside, “at least finish cooking first before you take a call.” Takashi laughs, and he misses whatever it is that he whispers to Adam. He stops looking after that, but only in that one scenario -

Every other time, Keith can’t help but watch. In between paintings or sketches, he will peek into that little hole and try to see as much of Takashi as he can – he catches glimpses of him cleaning, of him playing with his little Pomeranian, of him kissing Adam and laughing with him. His smile is as bright as the sun, his beauty everything that Keith wants to capture on canvas, on paper, wants to paint over and over and over and sell it so that everyone else can see how beautiful Takash is.

But he never does anything with the paintings of Takashi, and over time they accumulate – he imagines the full scenarios that he witnesses. He thinks about kissing Takashi like he does to Adam, imagines being the one in his bed, and the obsession pounds against his head.

He never tells his therapist.

Keith learns how to read Takashi over time, just from these little glimpses; he feels his heartbeat against his own ribcage, he envisions him laying on his bed and accepting the euphoria Adam gives him, he thinks about all the lies that drip from Takashi’s lips when he wants to hide his concerns. He tastes the salt of his tears on the tip of his tongue when Adam is out at work and Takashi’s doesn’t start until late in the afternoon. He wants to come over, wants to wipe the tears away, wants to comfort and soothe and learn everything that Takashi is hiding away. He wants to peel his skin away and understand what he keeps away from even his own husband.

He wants to know why Takashi cries every day that Adam isn’t there. He wants to understand the conversations he has with his friend on the phone.

All Keith can do is look through his little peephole and imagine the life they can have if he just steps outside of his comfort zone. He wants more than just the little glimpses that his peephole gives to him – he wants to see everything. He wants to go to the coffee shop with Takashi, go shopping with him.

He wants to call him Shiro, like all his friends do. He wants to know. He wants to give more and more. But all he can do is just _watch._

Every gasp and cry, every laugh and moment of joy, anger... Keith records them all in his heart, wants to never forget the voice that never addresses him. He thinks about Adam laughing as Takashi grabs his hand and exclaims, “let’s dance!” to a random song playing on his phone. He thinks about how terrible they are dancing, at the fact that they fall over into a heap and laugh, so beautiful.

He thinks about Adam leaving with a kiss on Takashi’s forehead, only for the latter to crumple and break into his tears. He wants to wipe the tears away and let Takashi know that Keith will always, always be there will always watch and wait, will always listen. But he isn’t approaching the door to his neighbour, isn’t talking to the man who cries all the time, to the man so happily married.

His husband is right out there, sitting in his black car and driving away to work. In a few hours, Takashi will follow after him after he heats up leftovers from Adam’s cooking (which isn’t great, but better than Takashi’s), eats a small portion and drinks water down with it. He leaves food and water behind for Missile, makes sure that the little ball of energy won’t break anything after a quick check, then exclaims a loud “goodbye!” to Missile.

Keith likes to murmur a “goodbye” in return whenever Takashi does that, imagines that it is him he is addressing and not a bundle of fluffy hair. He sketches his smiling face as he waves goodbye, alongside the many others, and he waits for Adam to come home and set about his own relaxation routine.

Adam never comes back one fateful day. Takashi doesn’t either.

People he doesn’t recognize begin to visit Takashi one day after he comes home without his husband. A large, bulky man in yellow, a wiry one in blue, and a slightly taller but equally as wiry one in glasses. They crowd him, murmuring words that Keith can’t hear, and they block away his sight of Takashi’s face.

Whenever he sees him, his eyes are bloodshot and a deeper red than ever before; he doesn’t eat unless the large one, Hunk, forces him to. He doesn’t sleep until the one in glasses who is the friend on the phone, Matt, shoves him into his bedroom and gives him his sleeping pills. He babbles on to the wiry one in blue, Lance, and clings onto him.

Adam Shirogane is dead from a car crash, dying before they can get him to the hospital, and Takashi hasn’t been to work for a week now thanks to this. He doesn’t leave his bedroom unless his friends make him come out unless they force him out, and Keith’s throat tightens.

He wants to be in there with him. But he can only watch.

In the middle of the second week, he learns that Takashi terminates his contract to stay here. The moving boxes fill up his flat, and Keith covers up his peephole once more. Takashi Shirogane moves out by the end of the week, deciding to find somewhere else far, far away from the apartment building, and Keith closes his eyes against the sting of the tears.

The walls of his own flat have his paintings of Takashi all over them, something to help him through his days even as his neighbour is doing his best to flee from the place with memories of his late husband.

Perhaps seeing his therapist about this, coming clean, will help him in the future. Help him better himself. Help him avoid another obsession.

 

 

[But he misses Takashi Shirogane already.]

**Author's Note:**

> [ Pillowfort. ](https://www.pillowfort.social/transistor) | [ Tumblr. ](https://transistories.tumblr.com/) | [Twitter.](https://twitter.com/EmptyHeartLover)
> 
> Author's notes for this fic, if you're interested, are on my Pillowfort.


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